Ieee 802.1X - Fujitsu Siemens Computers CONNECT2AIR WLAN AP-600RP-USB Manual

CONNECT2AIR™ WLAN AP-600RP-USB

8.4.12 IEEE 802.1x

IEEE 802.1x is a standard for network access control (port-based), which was introduced
especially for distributing encryption keys in a wireless network. The AccessPoint supports
802.1x for keeping out unauthorized users and for verifying the credentials of users with
RADIUS so that authorized users can access the network and services.
To use 802.1x, you will need at least one common Extensible
Authentication Protocol (EAP) method on your authentication
server, APs (authenticator) and stations (supplicant). 802.1x is
also used to perform generation and distribution of encryption
keys from AP to the station as part of or after the authentication
process. A further factor here is dynamic WEP, which is based
on legacy RC4 WEP encryption and is available in this Ac-
cessPoint under the setting for enabling 802.1x security in as-
sociation with disabled Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) set-
tings. There are two options for the key length, i.e. 40 and 104
bits. The longer the key length, the greater security it will offer.
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APPLICATION
802.1x and Radius Server:
An 802.1x client needs to be
combined with a Radius server.
The server acts as an authenti-
cation authority, the Access-
Point as an authenticator and
the client as supplicant.
Windows XP already comes
with integrated 802.1x capabili-
ties and can therefore be used
directly in combination with a
Radius server.